Corn picking roll attachment



Dec. 27, 1955 w. H. RATMEYER CORN PICKING ROLL ATTACHMENT Filed Feb. 3, 1954 1N VENTOR United States Patent 6 CORN PICKlNG ROLL ATTACHMENT Walter H. Ratmeyer, Forreston, Ill. Application February 3, 1954, Serial No. 408,001 6 Claims. (Cl. 56-104) This invention relates to a novel attachment for a corn picking roll capable of being detachably applied to one of a pair of corn picking rolls for materially increasing the efficiency of the pair of rolls in feeding the corn stalks therebetween and in snapping the ears from the stalks.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a corn picking roll attachment which will efiiciently dispose of trash and broken off stalks which frequently cause clogging of corn picking rolls and which will enable the rolls to operate efliciently under very dry conditions.

Still a further object of the invention is to provide an attachment for a corn picking roll which will minimize shelling the ears of corn as they are snapped from the stalks.

Still a further object of the invention is to provide an attachment which may be readily removed when not needed, as for example when the picking rolls are operated under very wet conditions.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter become more fully apparent from the following description of the drawing, illustrating a presently preferred embodiment thereof, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary plan view of portions of a pair of conventional corn picking or snapping rolls, showing the attachment applied to one of the rolls and as it will appear when the rolls are revolving;

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary top plan view of the attachment shown removed from the picking roll;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary edge elevational view thereof, and

Figure 4 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along a plane as indicated by the line 4-4 of Figure 1.

Referring more specifically to the drawing, for the purpose of illustrating the application and use of the picking or snapping roll attachment, designated generally 5 and comprising the invention, the upper or rear portions 6 and 7 of a pair of conventional corn picking or snapping rolls are illustrated in Figure 1 and include upper rear ends 6a and 7a, respectively. Said rolls are provided with conventional spiral ribs 8, portions only of which are illustrated. The conventional rolls are generally provided with tapped or threaded openings, or such an opening 9, as illustrated in Figure 4, may be formed in the roll 6.

The attachment 5, comprising the invention, is applied to only one of the rolls, for example the roll 6, and comprises an elongated flexible strip having an inner or base layer 10 formed of three or four cord plies, similar to the cord plies of a motor vehicle pneumatic tire casing, and a top portion or layer 11 formed of tough rubber. The base layer 10 and top layer 11 each extends from end-to-end of the strip forming the attachment 5. Said top layer 11 is preferably of a thickness somewhat greater than the thickness of the base layer 10 and is provided with longitudinally spaced transversely extending grooves 12, which extend from side to side of the strip 5. The

strip or attachment 5 is provided near one end thereof with an opening 13 to receive a headed screw fastening 14 which is detachably secured in the threaded opening 9 of the roll 6 to detachably secure the end 15 of the strip 5, in which the opening 13 is formed, to the outer side of the roll 6. As seen in Figure 4, when the screw 14 is tightened in the opening 9 the head thereof will be substantially embedded in the strip end 15. The end 15 of the strip 5 is secured to the roll 6 at an angle as illustrated in Figure 1, so that the strip 5 may be spirally wound about the roll 6 from its secured end 15 toward the upper rear end of the roll and with a pitch substantially corresponding to the pitch of the spiral rib 8 of said roll 6. As seen in Figures 1 and 4, the base layer 10 will be disposed against the exterior surface of the roll 6 and the outer layer 11 having the grooves 12, constituting traction forming means, will be located outwardly thereof when the attachment is in an applied position.

The roll 6 revolves in the direction as indicated by the arrow 16 in Figure 1 so that the end 15 constitutes the leading end of the attachment and accordingly, the attachment or strip 5 will wind itself spirally about the roll 6 and toward its upper, rear or right-hand end, as seen in Figure l, as the roll 6 is revolved in its normal direction of operation.

In harvesting corn under dry conditions worn snapping rolls are frequently very inelfective and fail to properly feed the corn stalks toward the upper rear ends of the rolls and likewise fail to dispose of excess trash and broken corn stalks. To overcome these objections, worn rolls are frequently welded or roughened by arc welding. However, when this is done the rolls frequently shell the ears of corn when snapping them from the stalks and when such rolls are again used under wet or moist conditions, grass and weeds will wrap around the roll, requiring cleaning of the roll before the harvesting operation can be continued. This frequently results in injury to the operator who often attempts to clean the rolls while revolving.

The attachment 5 may be readily applied to one of the snapping rolls, as previously described, and will effectively function to more efiiciently feed the stalks between the rolls toward the upper or rear ends thereof and will additionally provide adequate traction to dispose of excess trash or broken corn stalks between the rolls 6 and 7, even under extremely dry conditions. The transverse grooves 12 alford additional traction for gripping engagement with the trash and broken stalks for clearing such subject matter from the snapping rolls. Furthermore, the strip 5 may be readily removed when its use is not required as when harvesting under wet conditions and when employed will result in less shelling of the corn than results when employing rolls which have been welded or roughened. The attachment 5 will also enable effective use of snapping rolls which would otherwise be ineffective due to wear and may be employed with any snapping roll of the type illustrated in the drawing without modification of the roll, with the possible exception of providing the tapped hole 9 therein and which is usually already available.

Various modifications and changes are contemplated and may obviously be resorted to, without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as hereinafter defined by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A com snapping roll attachment comprising an elongated flexible strip, means detachably securing one end only of said strip to a portion of a snapping roll and with said strip end disposed at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the snapping roll, said strip extending generally toward the upper rear end of the snapping roll from its secured end, said secured end of the strip constituting the leading end thereof when the snapping roll is revolved in its normal direction of operation and providing means for causing the strip to be spirally Wound about the roll and toward the upper rear end of the roll, said flexible strip being of substantial thickness and of a length to extend spirally more than one convolution about the snapping roll.

2. A snapping roll attachment as in claim 1, said elongated flexible strip including an inner or base layer comprising a plurality of cord plies disposed next to the outer surface of the snapping roll and an outer layer of tough rubber, each of said layers extending from end-to-end of the strip.

3. A corn snapping roll attachment as in claim 2, said outer layer being provided with a plurality of longitudinally spaced transversely extending outwardly opening grooves formed in the outer layer thereof constituting traction forming means.

4. A corn snapping roll attachment as in claim 3, said outer layer being of a thickness greater than the thickness of the base layer.

5. An attachment for one of a pair of corn snapping rolls comprising an elongated flexible strip adapted to be spirally wound about a portion of a snapping roll, and means securing said strip at one end only thereof to the snapping roll, said secured end of the strip being clisposed remote from an upper rear end of the snapping roll relatively to the remainder of said strip and constituting the leading end of the strip when the snapping roll is revolved in the normal direction of operation thereof, said strip being of a length greater than the circurnierence of the snapping roll and being relatively thick and including an inner base layer comprising a plurality of cord plies and an outer thicker layer of tough rubber, said outer layer having traction forming means on the outer surface thereof.

6. An attachment for one of a pair of corn snapping rolls having a spiral rib, comprising an elongated flexible strip adapted to be spirally wound about a portion of a snapping roll between convolutions of the spiral rib thereof, and means securing said strip at one end only thereof to the snapping roll, said secured end of the strip being disposed remote from an upper rearend of the snapping roll relative to the remainder of said strip and constituting the leading end of the strip when the snapping roll is revolved in a normal direction of operation, the convolutions of said flexible strip being held in spread relation to one another by the convolutions of the spiral rib disposed therebetween.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 423,885 Todd Mar. 18, 1890 839,472 Goodhue Dec. 25, 1906 1,830,772 Stadtherr Nov. 10, 1931 1,859,800 Schwartz May 24, 1932 

